Boys, girls and adolescents actively participated in thirteen varied workshops that showed and provided important information about university careers and the work of the ULS.

Workshops of various types were part of this new version of the Children's University, summer 2015. Various subjects, university laboratories and ULS academics were part of the experience lived by more than a hundred students, who during their vacations chose to attend vocational, recreational and artistic workshops, organized by the ULS Extension Directorate. 

Socializing with a varied team, listening to university subjects and working recreationally, in the conditions that true ULS students would do, were part of the objectives met by the organizing unit and by all the departments of the institution that invest in the team and through of infrastructure, to receive minors from the region and tourists interested in learning about the work of the institution.On this occasion, the workshops held were: Architecture, Design, Kinesiology, Nursing, Chemistry, Making Radio, Improvised Singing, Theater, Children's Theater, and finally, the workshops on Photography, Astronomy, Robotics with Lego and Video Games with Construct 2.

Precisely, in this second and last week, two computational workshops linked to programming generated the fascination of the little ones, with the already well-known “Robotics with Lego” workshop, where students exercising teamwork and healthy competition, they were able to program their own robot and confront it with various difficulties proposed by the teacher. In addition, the “Video Games with Construct 2” workshop was held for the first time at the Children's University, in which students between 12 and 17 years old created their own video game.

Maite Madalosso, who signed up for both workshops and was one of the few women to live this experience, recounted what it was like to take these classes, choosing them and invites more women to participate.Choose these entertaining courses. “I chose them because I have always liked programming and anything related to physics. I encourage women to join because this is not difficult and we were all able to create our own video game (…), in fact in my house I have the same program “Construct 2” that I didn't know how to use before, but now that I know, I want to improve my video game until it is the best,” concluded the 15-year-old student.

Another of the workshops held this week was the Nursing one, where Pamela Morales, an academic at the Department of Nursing at the University of La Serena, highlighted the importance of addressing contingent issues about quality of life and habits with the little ones. “It is a super beneficial instance, especially because children, believe it or not, have more notions of what it means to be healthy," said the ULS nurse.

These workshops were joined by the Architecture workshop, where academic Alejandro Orellana taught classes for the fourth consecutive time. "We have had three very intense days of activities, with a lot to do regarding architecture. I think it has been a good experience, it has been very satisfactory for me as a teacher and I think the children have had a great time too," he said. of this instance that brings students closer to what architecture is, to the work of a career student, especially those who are thinking of studying architecture and understanding the work of an architect.  

Age diversity: an opportunity to share and exercise creativity 

One of the striking characteristics of these activities at the University of La Serena is the diversity of ages to which the activities are directed, between 5 and 17 years old, including workshops that bring together wide age ranges, as is the case of Architecture workshop where the ages fluctuated between 10 and 17 years. Contrary to what one might think about the difficulty of working, academic Alejandro Orellana sees this situation as a very good alternative and with quite positive results. "Older children are more skilled in some things, they draw better, they cut better, they are faster, but the youngest children are more naive and therefore have greater creativity, so what some have, others do not have and they "They complement each other quite well. We saw that some of the youngest children were the ones who did the most original and entertaining work, so this mixing of ages has been quite positive," he highlighted. 

Finally, this time at the University and this opportunity, even to reaffirm or discard vocational options, is a positive experience in its different areas. This was reaffirmed by the Journalism academic, Cristian Muñoz, who taught the Photography workshop for five days, titled “Portraying my world.” “From every point of view, it seems very positive and integrative to me, fulfilling many roles in the University, with a social role above all. Additionally, as a teacher, this is an opportunity to review yourself, your teaching and learning methods, and be challenged by being with an audience that is smaller, younger, more energetic, and certainly more open to asking questions. and they have less conflict with expressing their concerns," adding that this type of activities taught by the state campus is a very good way to link the University with the environment, since "different types of knowledge are transmitted to people who are going to integrate future of the new generations of students and professionals who will pass through our University,” highlighted the academic.

Source: Press Extension Direction